ash box creosote?

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Hi all,
I use the ash drawer on my stove every couple of days. When I opened the door this last time, I noticed a lump of hard black stuff had run down and landed on the bottom of the ash box (out side of the ash drawer) and had melted on my ash door gasket. I scratched as much of it off as I could, but it left my ash door gasket hard were it melted to it. I've never had this problem before. So I continued with cleaning the stove.

I pulled the top and cleaned everything. There are no other signs of discoloration or creosote any where. Everything looks really good. I also cleaned the chimney. I got about a 1/2 of a coffee can worth from the liner. It also looks really good. There are no signs of runny black stuff anywhere, except for the ash box.

When I removed the ash drawer I noticed quite a bit of shinny black stuff that has run down the wall of the ash box between the ash drawer. Anyone know if this is normal? or what could be causing this to occur? I attached some photos.

Also I noticed that it appears that other Jotul models have a cast iron ash box. Mine is metal. The ash drawer is metal, which is understandable, and the ash door is cast iron, but why is the ash box on the F3 CB metal and not cast iron?

Thanks for the help.
 

Attachments

  • ashbox1.jpg
    ashbox1.jpg
    58.8 KB · Views: 447
  • ashbox2.jpg
    ashbox2.jpg
    53.7 KB · Views: 475
  • ashbox3.jpg
    ashbox3.jpg
    57.4 KB · Views: 439
  • ashdoor.jpg
    ashdoor.jpg
    47.4 KB · Views: 432
Exhaust gasses must be lingering down there and since it is a cooler area, it condenses and sticks.

Not really sure how you could prevent that. Its probably a fairly dead air space.
 
Are you using the ash pan at all? To start a fire? To give it some air while its burning?
 
No, I was told that using the ash door while starting a fire can cause damage.? I have opened it to dump the ash drawer while I have a few coals in the stove, but not active fire. Anyone else notice any thing like this?
 
That is really odd. May i recommend leaving ash in the pan. By doing this it will serve to keep it warmer down there and may stop your problem you are having. I would take the pics you have now and save them. Burn for a month with ash in the pan at all times then check and see if it has gotten any worse.
 
That is odd. How is the wood you are burning this year? What temps are you running the F3CB at?

PS: IIRC the ash pan on the F400 is also metal. I prefer that. Cast iron would have thicker walls, so less ash capacity and it would weigh more.
 
My wood is good, two years split, dry, covered. I run the stove hot and cycle it. It's running just like it did last year. I never noticed this problem until a few days ago. Very odd. I wonder what happened to cause this?
I will try and leave it full of ash and see what happens. I guess ill change that gasket ASAP so I don' have any trouble from it later.

This was last week. I took too long brushing my teeth..... 600 degrees when I came back out to shut it down, it went to 625 then slowly started to come back down. The secondary burn was shooting out so far, it looked like it was hitting the glass, haha
 

Attachments

  • secondary1.jpg
    secondary1.jpg
    49.7 KB · Views: 345
  • secondary2.jpg
    secondary2.jpg
    48.3 KB · Views: 323
  • secondary3.jpg
    secondary3.jpg
    54 KB · Views: 342
I'm just bringing this back up because I also have noticed an accumulation of glazed, drippy creosote on the ash box door and on the walls of the ash box of our Oslo. There is also a light coat behind the fire bricks but nothing like in the ash box.
My wood (hickory, sycamore, soft maple) was split and stacked winter of 2009/2010 so although it's a year seasoned, it seems to still have some moisture.
I also burn in the 450-550 range and reload at 300 +/-.

Has anyone had any other thoughts on this occurence?

gizmos, how did your flue look? Any of the same stuff up there on inspection? I am waiting for a break in the weather (snow) so I can get up on the roof and do an inspect and brushing.
 
mossycup said:
I'm just bringing this back up because I also have noticed an accumulation of glazed, drippy creosote on the ash box door and on the walls of the ash box of our Oslo. There is also a light coat behind the fire bricks but nothing like in the ash box.
My wood (hickory, sycamore, soft maple) was split and stacked winter of 2009/2010 so although it's a year seasoned, it seems to still have some moisture.
I also burn in the 450-550 range and reload at 300 +/-.

Has anyone had any other thoughts on this occurence?

gizmos, how did your flue look? Any of the same stuff up there on inspection? I am waiting for a break in the weather (snow) so I can get up on the roof and do an inspect and brushing.

Looks like a combination of wet wood and slow burning.. Try running a bit hotter and drying your wood a few feet back from the stove (I would be sure to be keep an eye on it) to try and drive out moisture before adding it to the stove.. This should help..

Ray
 
gizmos said:
No, I was told that using the ash door while starting a fire can cause damage.? I have opened it to dump the ash drawer while I have a few coals in the stove, but not active fire. Anyone else notice any thing like this?

I get a little bit of glazing on my ash pan door and in some spots inside the ash pan compartment, but no dripping or heavy deposits. I even changed the gasket this year and the same thing happens. I guess if it ever ignited for any reason, the flames would travel into the fire box, so I don't worry about it as long as the door gasket isn't leaking air.
 
No ash box here but I have similar in the firebox behind the firebrick in the back I summed it up to running the blower often and thus cooling this area of the stove causing the condensation. Turning the fan down and running a little hot every now and then cures the problem. I guess you have blowers mounted in the same fashion?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.